The Image staff muses on the culture of keeping up appearances

London Olympics: Swimwear that will make you feel like Michael Phelps

With the London Olympics in full swing, even those of us whose usual activity level consists of pressing buttons on the remote may get inspired to become more active.

And to get started, it wouldn't hurt to look the part.

All manner of vendors (Nike, Adidas, Ralph Lauren, among them) are pushing their own Olympics or Olympics-inspired apparel. But among the most intriguing are the swimsuits Speedo and Tyr are offering consumers that have been engineered using some of the technologies they employ in the high-performance suits they've provided to Olympic swimmers such as Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Amanda Weir, Ariana Kukors and Natalie Coughlin. These suits can help competitive swimmers move faster and beach bunnies look slimmer, as writer Diedre Crawford reports in this week's Image section.